Xronos is an interesting project that I have been supporting for over two years. It is an open-source fork of the Ximera project of Ohio State University. The pronunciation uses a hard ‘C’ for the ‘x’ at the beginning.  The’X’ represents the greek letter ‘chi’, so that Xronos is pronounced like ‘Chronos’ and Ximera like ‘Chimera’.

The project allows content and course creators to prepare one base document using LaTeX. That document is then processed to allow the web server to render interactive content that students use to learn the course subject. Teachers use the results of the student interactions to assess their performance and also to collect statistics about how students interact with the content. Analysis can lead to improved teaching methods and more effective learning tools for students.

The Xronos project also integrates with the course management system in use at UF called Canvas. Xronos is also free for students to use and doesn’t require an activation key unlike other services. The benefit for students is that they will not incur any additional expense, thereby lowering the cost of their education.